Custom Theme- Content Grid

I would like my content post to display similar to the tanzaku
theme. My template has a header and left side bar. I would like to learn how to make the custom content grid (to display post), so that it fits to the right of my sidebar- leaving the rest of the template untouched.

My site if you would like to kinda see what I mean:
http://redilinks.com/category/business_directory/

I would like it to look like the content is in a table and scrolling straight down like it is now. I just don’t know what language to learn to make this happen.

I’ve looked at the coding for the tanzaku theme and it looks like it is more than HTML and CSS. Does anyone have an idea of where to start? Or a book I can buy.

If I can learn how to code this kind of stuff myself, then I can adjust it to fit other pages that I have and not just this one. Also, I may be able to create other new ideas too.

I’ve tried hacking the code to the tanzaku theme (there hasn’t been support to this theme for 2 years), but I can’t make it work right in my theme. There are many sites that have content grids similar to what I’m looking for, so I know there must be a place to start for learning purposes.

I don’t just want to copy code and not be able to figure out why it won’t work. I’d rather try to learn why you do things a certain way. If you know of any good books or sites that I can visit, I would really appreciate it.

I’ve searched this subject for weeks now and can’t figure out where to start. I’m trying to self teach myself (it takes a long time) 🙂